Rio de Janeiro

Prison Health Superintendent Edison José Biondi told O Estado de Sao Paolo that most prisoners are drug users and that many continue to use while in prison. According to Biondi, 78% of men and 72% of women prisoners used marijuana prior to arrest, and nearly half of the men and about one-third of the women continued to smoke in jail. Similarly, 66% of men and 77% of women prisoners used cocaine prior to arrest, while 24% and 21% respectively continued to snort behind bars.

"Use decreased because of the toughness of getting drugs in," said Biondi, "but it exists. We debunked the idea that you don't have drugs in prison."

While Brazilian prison health officials see solutions in treatment programs, the pervasiveness of marijuana and cocaine and their widespread sales by users guarantees a continuing supply of new prisoners absent real change in Brazilian drug policies. Reformers greeted the election of Luis Inacio "Lula" da Silva with great hope, but he has so far failed to deliver on hinted drug policy changes. In the meantime, the Brazilian state resorts to "therapeutic justice," an Orwellian-sounding counterpart to the US drug court system, which enlists health professionals to serve criminal justice ends.